By Richard Evans, Reporter
I KNOW the highlights of the international football last week were later aired on a freeview channel for all, but it wasn't much good if you didn't know about the late decision.
I don't blame Setanta Sports for trying to make the most of their exclusive rights to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales away games, but I think most will agree it is fundamentally wrong.
Reportedly the Irish channel paid £5 million for the exclusivity of the games. In a world where nothing is free it seems you must now pay more and more for what essentially I'd expect the BBC to acquire the rights to in the first place.
The Premier League and such... okay, take it away, flog it on Sky Sports or whatever. Do the same with the Ryder Cup if you must, and the volleyball world cup and other niche sports. But the national game? Sorry rugby fans, but football is still the most popular sport in Wales, as in England, although you could argue this is not the case in terms of the international game.
Every household is forced to pay for the outdated and drastically unfair TV licence when there is a choice of literally hundreds of channels available elsewhere. Unless you like EastEnders then why would you want to spend your hard earned cash on a channel of reruns when you have hundreds of alternatives?
If you want the BBC then pay for it, but people should be given the choice. And if we aren't then the least the Government funded British Broadcasting Corporation can do is pull their finger out and secure the rights to events of national interest such as the national teams trying to qualify for the World Cup, which is still more popular than the Olympics, by the way, however commendable Team GB's performance was.
I just feel sorry for those who splashed out £15 to watch Amir Khan take a whopping in 54 seconds.
The BBC has reportedly struck a £18 million three-year deal to pay Jonathan Ross - nice work if you can get it, but wouldn't £1 million of that sum be much better spent on the wights - sorry rights - to the football? I think so.
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